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As you may be aware, there are several types of meditation. But you may not exactly know what these are.
In this article, we’ll cover 7 of the common types of meditation.
If you’ll research it, you can find some articles that discuss up to 23 types of meditation. But the simplest ones are these 7 types.
We can go all about the history and the origin of meditation to discuss why there are several types of them. But to make it simple, I’ll just go straight to the 7 most common types.
Also, I’ll try to sort them from the easiest to the least simple to do.
7 Types of Meditation
1. Breath Awareness Meditation
Breath awareness meditation is a type of meditation that encourages mindful breathing.
The goal is to focus on breath alone. Practitioners will often breathe slowly. They can also focus on their breaths without counting.
Focusing on breath and ignoring other thoughts that come to mind is the only goal. However, it’s not as simple as it sounds.
Once you try breath awareness meditation…
…you might find that your mind will be full of unwanted and distracting thoughts.
The only thing you can do to help yourself is to count your breathing. As you inhale, count 1, as you exhale, count 2. Or a full inhalation and exhalation count as 1. Up to you.
Benefits include greater relaxation, reduced anxiety, improved concentration, and emotional stability.
2. Body Scan or Progressive Relaxation
During body scan meditation, practitioners will start relaxing their whole body. From their head down to their feet, or from their feet up to their head.
They can either visualize a wave of relaxation drifting through their body. Or tense and relax each part one by one. This is called body scan because you will mentally, in a progressive manner, scan for tension on your body. And the goal is to release every tension present.
Benefits include relaxation and calmness throughout the body. It may also help with chronic pain. It can also help people to fall asleep.
3. Mindfulness Meditation
This might be the most common type of meditation. Practitioners need to stay in a state of awareness and presence.
The challenge here is to keep your mind in the present moment. Rather than dwelling on the past and worrying about the future.
The absence of judgment is important. Sitting still for 10 minutes or more, and just staying present at the moment can be difficult. So practitioners should practice it with patience and without judgment.
This can be done through a combination of body scanning, breathing, and just stillness.
Aside from meditation sessions, practitioners can practice mindfulness by minding the surroundings. This can be done when waiting in queues. Or when waiting for someone for a long time.
Benefits include emotional stability, making impulsive emotional reactions less often. It also improves focus and memory.
Surprisingly, mindfulness meditation can also lower blood pressure.
4. Loving–Kindness Meditation
The goal of this is to cultivate feelings of loving-kindness towards everything. Even the people that stress you out, your goal is to feel that loving–kindness towards them too.
While meditating, practitioners open their mind to feeling loving kindness. Mostly coming from the heart, soak yourself with the feeling of loving kindness. This type of meditation is designed to make yourself used to the feeling of love and compassion.
If you are affected by hatred, interpersonal issues, anger, and resentment…
…you should try to practice loving-kindness meditation.
5. Zen Meditation
In this type of meditation, you find a comfortable position. Then focus on posture and observe your thoughts without judgment.
This form of meditation can be a part of Buddhist practice. And usually done under a supervision of a teacher.
It is similar to mindfulness meditation but Zen meditation requires more discipline. Again, benefits are similar to the ones stated above.
6. Kundalini Yoga
This meditation is a combination of deep breathing, mantras, and physical poses.
Practitioners can also learn this from a teacher, but one can study the poses on their own.
It has the same benefits as the types of meditation above and it can also improve your physical strength.
7. Transcendental Meditation
I listed this last because I think this is the most complicated of the 7. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try and practice this.
The goal is to make practitioners transcend beyond their current state of being.
And because of the complications of this practice, it is also advisable to study under a teacher.
And as I’ve said above, I tried to sort this from the simplest to the most complicated. But that since there are a lot of factors, you might have a different opinion, and that’s fine.
I hope I was able to make sense of the 7 common types of meditation, and their differences.
By the way, check this out.
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